he manifest vices of men, while they realized whatever was
loveliest in their faith. Priestly reform soon enraged itself into mere
contest for personal opinions; while, without rage, but in stern rebuke
of all that was vile in conduct or thought,--in declaration of the
always-received faiths of the Christian Church, and in warning of the
power of faith, and death,[G] over the petty designs of men,--Botticelli
and Holbein together fought foremost in the ranks of the Reformation.

45. To-day I will endeavor to explain how they attained such rank. Then,
in the next two lectures, the technics of both,--their way of speaking;
and in the last two, what they had got to say.

First, then, we ask how they attained this rank;--who taught _them_ what
they were finally best to teach? How far must every people--how far did
this Florentine people--teach its masters, before _they_ could teach
_it_?

Even in these days, when every man is, by hypothesis, as good as
another, does not the question sound strange to you? You recognize in
the past, as you think, clearly, that national advance takes place
always under the guidance of masters, or groups of masters, possessed of
what appears to be some new personal sensibility or gift of invention;
and we are apt to be reverent to these alone, as if the nation itself
had been unprogressive, and suddenly awakened, or converted, by the
genius of one man.

No idea can be more superficial. Every nation must teach its tutors, and
prepare itself to receive them; but the fact on which our impression is
founded--the rising, apparently by chance, of men whose singular gifts
suddenly melt the multitude, already at the point of fusion; or suddenly
form, and _in_form, the multitude which has gained coherence enough to
be capable of formation,--enables us to measure and map the gain of
national intellectual territory, by tracing first the lifting of the
mountain chains of its genius.

46. I have told you that we have nothing to do at present with the great
transition from ancient to modern habits of thought which took place at
the beginning of the sixteenth century. I only want to go as far as that
point;--where we shall find the old superstitious art represented
_finally_ by Perugino, and the modern scientific and anatomical art
represented _primarily_ by Michael Angelo. And the epithet bestowed on
Perugino by Michael Angelo, 'goffo nell' arte,' dunce, or blockhead, in
art,--being, as far as my knowle